<<Previous | Next>>

Page 8 - Engine is inside, making custom engine mounts and adapting Uno gearbox shifter

Engine is mounted - that's correct, but unfortunately only temporarily, because I need to take some final measures before I start preparing car for painting - I need to find place for turbo mounting with large 4-in1 header, plan oil hose routes, make some place for oil cooler, mount

IC & coolant radiator, mount toothed wheel on crank for MS ignition system, and many other little things.

I had recently another excellent idea- I'll remove completely std rear fuel tank and make custom aluminum 10L fuel cell, that will be mounted in engine bay, on passenger side - there are many benefits: some weight saving, aluminum can't corrode, fuel line instalation will be minimalistic and bulletproof, I can mount electric fuel pump wherever is convinient, etc. Fuel cell cap must be mounted on hood so I can fill up cell without opening hood - that will be interesting design challenge...

 

After welding & grinding I sand all imperfections and surface rust and put very light coat of primer . Now engine bay looks much nicer...

... engine was put in place so fast that we laughed - without almost any metal in front of the car that was somehow expected of course ;-)

Everything is just temporarily fastened to see clearances and to make some new custom mounts...

...upper mount idea - very simple but effective....

...after some welding , engine mount was in place...

...underside of the mount view...that mount was originaly from some Alfa Romeo 164, I am not sure...

 

Top view of the engine & mount.

...and this is idea for lower mount - I cut one end of the std Yugo lower mount with two M8 holes and welded that to one spare upper engine mount brace - maybe sound confusing but it's in fact very simple ....:-)

...but first one shot of the front of the car - I must make some removable brace for cooler mounting - IC, oil & coolant radiator will be all mounted on that brace...

...and now it is probably more understandable how will lower mount look like - it's originaly from Zastava 101 upper mount...

...this is how it looked befor cutting...btw, that rubber bushes inside mounts are in terrible shape - I'll probably remove it and make custom polyurethane mounts...

 

Beside many things on Yugo that I hated I always especially hated Yugo original gear shifter system - it's so loussy and unprecise that it's hard to describe it to somebody who hasn't tried it...so, one of many ideas in my head lately was somehow to adapt complete Fiat Uno system - they are both made in same era, but Uno system is few light years ahead from Yugo shifter, smooth and precise, with normal stroke.

 

It isn't straight swap - I'll need to cut Uno gear lever mounts and to reweld them on my new lower engine mounts - the key is to precise measure distances and angles between levers before welding, to insure smooth operation.

This is my plan of attack on Uno shift levers - complete system will be placed somehow inside cabin so it can be dismantled easily if necessary...
<<Previous | Next>>